Blue Cat Blues
An animated short from 1956, directed and produced by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera with music by Scott Bradley, starring the iconic duo of Tom and Jerry. Plot A depressed Tom sits on the railroad tracks, apparently bent on suicide-by-train. Watching from a bridge crossing the tracks overhead, Jerry laments his old friend's current state. Jerry knows that, when he gets home, his other friends will ask him why he didn't even try to stop Tom. Jerry believes that "it's better this way, and for the first time since he met her, he will be happy." Jerry recalls the events leading up to Tom's depression: : Tom and Jerry were once near-inseparable best friends, but then one day, Tom fell head-over-heels in love with a beautiful white female cat, who initially seemed to reciprocate Tom's feelings for her. However, the white cat ultimately proved herself to be nothing more than some opportunistic gold-digger, as she wound up leaving Tom for her next-door neighbor—an obscenely rich black tomcat named Butch. : Having seen the white cat for what she was and how she'd made a fool of his best friend, Jerry vainly urged Tom to give up and let her and Butch have each other. Ignoring Jerry's warnings, Tom pushed himself and his finances to the limit and beyond, in futile attempts at winning back the white cat's affections—however, because of his vast wealth, Butch was able to get the white cat much larger and more extravagant gifts compared to the much smaller and more humble gifts that Tom got for her. :*1.) The first gift Tom presented to the white cat was a single purple flower—but after arriving at her house, Tom discovered that Butch had already given her a large pink floral wreath with "Love From Butch" written on it in red roses. :*2.) After the flowers, Tom's next gift to the white cat was a single (and very small) bottle of perfume, but then an enormous tanker truck (with a "Love From Butch" note attached to it) full of perfume drove up to her house. :*3.) Tom's third gift to the white cat (after squandering his savings) was a diamond ring from a jeweler. However, the diamond on Tom's ring was so small that you had to use a magnifying glass just to get a good look at it. Plus, after presenting the ring, the white cat revealed to Tom that Butch had already given her a diamond ring of his own—however, the diamond on Butch's ring was so big and shiny that you couldn't even look at it without eye protection (Tom and the white cat had to wear welding masks just to look at her ring). :*4.) Tom's final gift for her was a car—one that he literally sold himself slavery for (twenty years of it to be precise), just so that he could cover 26-years worth of payments at an annual interest rate of 112% (and he literally sells an arm and a leg for it). However, Tom's car was an outdated jalopy that got completely flattened by Butch's much longer, more luxurious coupe when he drove up the white cat's house to pick her up. : Ultimately, the white cat chose Butch over Tom, once again proving herself to be nothing more than an opportunistic gold-digger—this caused the desperate/brokenhearted/hopelessly in-debt Tom to go downhill fast and start drowning his sorrows in milk (despite Jerry's pleas for him to stop). Tom almost let himself go down the gutter (literally), but Jerry managed to rescue him. While resuscitating Tom, the duo saw Butch and the white cat driving by, but now Butch's car was laden with luggage and had a "Just Married" sign hanging off the back of it. And now we're back to where the short originally started—Jerry, though still sad for Tom, expresses happiness about how his own girlfriend, Toots (who looks like the mouse version of the white cat), has remained faithful to him. However, Jerry's idyllic world is suddenly shattered when he sees Toots driving by with another mouse (presumably the mouse version of Butch) with a "Just Married" sign hanging off the car, proving herself to be just as much of an opportunistic gold-digger as the white cat. Now just as dejected as Tom, Jerry joins his old friend on the railroad tracks. The duo waits for the oncoming train, which draws nearer and nearer. The train's whistle sounds louder as the cartoon fades out, leaving their fates uncertain. Trivia *Unusual for a T&J short, Jerry "speaks" by narrating the story in a voiceover via Paul Frees—however, since Jerry narrates through inner monologue, the short doesn't break the "cardinal rule" of not having Tom and Jerry physically speaking on screen. *Also unusual for a T&J-short, is that while pretty much all other shorts have a comical storyline and usually a happy ending (or at least a funny ending), this short is surprisingly sad and the only one to have a truly tragic ending. **Because of this—along with the very heavy implications that the iconic duo ends up committing suicide at the end—this short has rarely ever been aired on American television (and television in general for that matter).